cabbageboy

Such a bizarre thread reading through it. While I never thought Test was the greatest wrestler ever or anything I never understood the sheer vitriol for the guy on this board. To me Test is a sad case in some ways, a guy who nearly had a main event push but it was all tossed aside during the Steph/HHH wedding angle and he ended up doing nothing. At least he had a few good matches in his career, like with Shane at SS 99, the Eddie match at WM, and a forgotten hardcore match with RVD on ECW in late 2006.

U of L baby. Syracuse finally ran out of gas tonight. Really bizarre postgame in some ways, with Flynn being the MVP of the tourney and they still mostly hype the Orange for their run. As of now the #1 seeds should be U of L, UNC, Pitt, and Memphis. I wonder now if U of L will be #1 in the polls for the first time ever, or will the AP and Coaches go with Memphis?

I went to the TNA house show last night in Shepherdsville, which is just 15 minutes outside Louisville. The show was at a podunk convention center that held about 1000 people. It was a bush league venue that seemed like an indie show more than a nationally televised company. They didn't even have a real ticket office, just a few people with tables selling tickets. Of course they were out of the cheapest 20.00 seats so I had to fork over 35.00 for 3 people (technically 65.00 myself, 40.00 for my friend and his fiancee since I told them tickets were 20.00 and that's all the cash they brought...he owes me pizza or something). They didn't even take credit cards, not even a hand held credit card type deal. Just cash. So that put us in a crap mood before the show even started. Here's what I remember about the house show as far as matches go: --Cornette introduced things, saying basically "Sorry we couldn't be at the Gardens, but they aren't accepting new events right now. Pretend this venue isn't bush league." --Eric Young and Shark Boy over No Limit (two Japanese guys, didn't know them). Adequate opener that got the crowd going, with the faces being over. There was a "USA" chant but the Japanese didn't really sell it or play heel that much. By the way TNA...don't call anyone No Limit. It conjures up memories of Master P and Co. --Brutus Magnus over Shane Sewell. Crappy match, but I must admit Magnus cracked me up with his prematch promo putting over Villanova, saying they were going to crush U of L (how'd THAT work out, Brother Bruti?). Mostly just Magnus squashing Sewell, with some token hope spots thrown in. --Taylor Wilde and Roxxi Laveaux over Jacqueline and Sojourner Bolt. Okay Knockouts match, with Jackie doing the job in old school USWA territory. Only made sense though since she doesn't wrestle much and Bolt is in a feud with Kong. Mainly the heels worked over Roxxi and she made the hot tag. --Booker T over Rhino. Booker did an amusing prematch promo saying he wouldn't defend his bogus belt because everyone in Shepherdsville is a fat redneck, total Memphis style stuff (and partially true...even Rhino somewhat agreed before saying "Hey, I'm a fat ass too"). Dull stuff once it began though, with Booker mostly phoning it in and doing headlocks and such. Has he studied his Orton? Booker goes over clean after an axe kick. --Intermission. Borash hyped the crowd here and throughout the night, giving out backstage passes. I didn't want one...too afraid Samoa Joe would pull a knife on me. --The tag title match turned into a 1 on 1 affair since James Storm was injured, not sure if this was legit. Cornette came back out and insisted Roode defend in a singles match against Lethal, Creed stood at ringside along with some DJ from 96.5, a local rap station (strange marketing with this redneck Bullitt County crowd). Best match of the show to this point, just good back and forth action and Roode hit Lethal with a chain wrapped around his hand for a pin. Cornette overturned the decision however and gave Machismo the DQ win, but then said that the titles remained with Beer Money. Since when? Doesn't TNA have that "titles change on DQs" rule? --Abyss over Matt Morgan. I thought going in Morgan might be fairly over due to his OVW connection, but he wasn't. In fact some in the crowd derisively chanted "OVW" at him, followed by "You still stutter" and "Smackdown reject." He was the only one to elicit this sort of smark reaction. Not especially violent, probably saving it for Sunday. A chair was used but that was it. Abyss goes over clean with the Black Hole Slam. --Main event time, Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle. Decent match but nowhere near the match Joe had with Styles here 2 years ago. A bit too much of Angle with a chinlock, similar to the Booker match in that regard, so both have studied their Orton. There were some hot reversals near the end though, with a ref bump on Hebner, kicking out of finishers, etc. Joe finally won with the muscle buster. --After the match Angle got on the mic and thanked everyone in the area for coming out to the show and that going to TNA was the best move he'd ever made (?!). Dude, you just jobbed clean in front of 1000 people in Shepherdsville when you could be getting a 6 figure pay day at WM in a few weeks. It was nice of him, but really strange and out of character considering guys like Booker and Brutus trashed the crowd earlier.

Well, U of L is now in the finals of the Big East but this Syracuse thing is dubious. It's almost as if they've channeled their 2006 fluke miracle form and are just refusing to lose. Still, they can't have much left in the tank, can they? I was wanting to just beat down Huggins again for old time's sake.

This is the best game ever. Who knew the 'Cuse had these big hairy balls?

Syracuse has had chance after chance to win this thing and they keep doing goofy stuff. Why take a tough 3 when all Flynn needed to do was go to the hoop and draw a foul? Or anything besides what they did? Bob Huggins is loving this.

Rey's setups for the 619 of late on Raw have been wildly contrived, like against Mike Knox or Kane. Guys way too big for him to get in that position. Here's the difference between RVD doing those wild reversals and a typical indy match. Those RVD/Lynn matches basically set the template for all these indy guys and the early X Division. When they did it in 1999 it was unbelievable....but too many guys did it to the point where it became watered down.

Yeah, Clarkson looks a bit heavier than normal but does anyone really mind? It's actually nice to see a fairly normal looking woman instead of a plastic supermodel. I'm glad it wasn't Anoop and Megan tonight, since they were at least car wreck memorable. At least Anoop had the balls to try Beat It, even if he sucked.

Yeah this was a really fun movie. Rudd carries it big time since otherwise it would be a movie full of one note actors like Stiffler and McLovin. But Rudd being such an insufferable prick saves the day, haha.

Yeah there was a thread about this a while ago. Rulebreaker was a surreal magazine, but it was more of a novelty magazine than something that could sustain itself. Heel columnists are really funny in a PWI setting where it's a counter to the norm, but a whole magazine of babyface bashing and pimping the heels gets wearisome. Still, the first one had a great headline: "1993: Year of the Rulebreaker!"

Yay, WKU won tonight over South Alabama so they are now in as well. Western had snuck up to 45 in the RPI, but still an at large likely wasn't happening for them so I'm glad to see them in with the auto bid. For what it's worth here are population stats from 2007 (off www.census.gov): Jefferson County, KY (Louisville): 704,648 Davidson County, TN (Nashville): 613,632

Fun show tonight. Enjoyed Miz/Primo and the battle royale. Primo seems like 3x the worker than Carlito is, just really solid and fluid in the ring. He can bring the in ring work, Carlito can work the mic. That's why some guys are tag wrestlers. Anyone think Christian might actually win the MITB? Him challenging Edge at some point might prove amusing.

I didn't watch any wrestling in 1990-91 so I can look at those two WMs objectively. I have always thought (and will always think) that WM VI is a crappy show. Okay it's in the Skydome. So is WM 18, and that is a better show. That whole show is Hogan/Warrior and nothing else. There isn't another remotely decent match on that card. And in a rarity for early WMs, Savage is wasted in a pointless undercard mixed tag. WM VII...not having seen the awful Iraq angle at the time I have no disdain towards this show and thus look at it without bias. This is a hell of a PPV. Warrior/Macho is one of my favorite matches ever, the Hogan/Slaughter match is actually pretty good, the opener with the Rockers is a terrific little match, and Harts/Nastys is also good albeit a downer. WM VIII: I did start watching in time for this show so I recall the angles leading to it. Another great show in my view, with Hart/Piper being a classic and either Piper's 1st or 2nd best match. Flair/Macho was of course gold and should have main evented. The other stuff is at least kinda fun, like HBK/Tito, UT/Jake squash, and Warrior saving Hogan at the end. WM IX: Oh dear. This show has gotten worse with time. It was never good per se, but it's gotten even worse with perspective. The main event and post match angle with Hogan is an atrocity and there's no real standout match to save this show. Also way too many DQs. One of the weakest WMs. WM X: This is a two match show. I've heard people mention this is their favorite WM, but I've never really seen it. I mean god Yokozuna wrestles TWICE on this show. The match with Luger is particularly horrible. And to be honest HBK/Razor is quaint compared to the ladder antics 5-6 years later. Bret/Owen is still a technical classic however.

To get back to Taken for a minute, I thought the trailer was awesome for that movie. One of the best trailers in a long time actually, since it took a movie I hadn't heard of and by the time it was over I definitely wanted to see it. It sets up the premise nicely with her being kidnapped, shows us Neeson's kick ass phone speech promising acts of horrible violence, but it shows us very little. I saw that trailer before The Day the Earth Stood Still and thought "Man, I wish they were showing me that movie instead of this."

The HHH/Orton ending was hilarious but highly reminiscent of the whole Austin/Pillman deal from Nov. 1996. In this case though it at least is going somewhere in terms of a match. As far as the whole Cena/Edge/Show/Vickie angle, it was a pure guilty pleasure. Cena comes off like such an obnoxious douche in this whole thing though. He's basically blackmailing the GM of his show in order to get a title shot at WM, which at this point even in storyline he doesn't deserve. I missed part of Jericho's promo on Flair. Is Flair showing up next week to end his retirement for a one time Raw match?

Jaxxson, you do realize that Louisville is a fairly large city bigger than, for instance, Nashville? No inbreeding around here. The point I was making is that the local stations constantly interrupt any programming for the slightest bit of bad weather even if it's not in the nearby area. Which sucks. Congrats to Siena, VCU, and Gonzaga for wins tonight. Given the beating that St. Mary's took tonight I have to wonder if that will cost them an at large with an iffy RPI of 45. Tomorrow night WKU goes for the Sun Belt title against either S. Alabama or Arkansas Little-Rock. S. AL was pretty far ahead at the half last I looked.

I don't know how to rate Bram Stoker's Dracula. I enjoy most of the actual movie but Keanu is so horribly, shockingly miscast as Harker that it almost ruins the film. "It's the man himself! He's grown young!" Or how about "I was impotent with fear!" Reeves is one of my mom's favorites for whatever reason. She loves Speed and also The Replacements, bought her both for Christmas a few years ago. She doesn't like any of the Matrix movies though.

Kofi does need that win, but in a way it does Jericho no favors to job to Kofi. It makes Jericho look like all he can do is beat up old men and can't beat anyone that is a younger star. The only good payoff would be someone like Hogan, but is Hogan going to mess with a guy that can't beat Kofi Kingston?

I don't get the talk about Nixon at all. It was a cheesy actor with a strange makeup job. Nixon didn't hurt my enjoyment of the film. I'm still at a loss for how someone is supposed to play the character Adrian Veidt. It's by far the hardest role in the film. Oddly enough I wouldn't have minded seeing a younger Orson Welles take a crack at the role, though he would do it a bit different than the book. He would at least bring the charisma and megalomania to the role. By the way, I would still say Sin City is easily the most faithful comic film adaptation.

I had something worse than a cutaway to UNC/Duke. There was a lame weather problem in the area so here we had nothing but weather coverage on every station because a few hick towns across the river in Indiana were under a storm warning.

Sin City was a better movie than Watchmen though I'm sure some would disagree with that opinion. It's also unbelievably faithful to the comics down to the last panel. Watchmen is the sort of graphic novel that would make a great HBO miniseries.

Here are some things I felt were missing:

I haven't watched OVW since a few weeks after the WWE pulled all the talent. I stayed with it for a few weeks but it started sucking so bad and was so embarrassingly bush league that I stopped bothering. JBL better have a plan to get the WWE funding back, because right now OVW is basically dead in the water. On pwinsider they said OVW lost its TV deal, but I saw it listed last night as usual at 11:00pm. Didn't turn it on though. I might have to at least check next week to see if it really isn't on the air.

Angle should look at Christian. While Vince sees him as a higher up guy than Christian he's still another signing from TNA that would wind up on ECW. He'd likely be putting over Swagger.